Pakistan confiscates illegal HCFC

PAKISTAN: The Pakistan government has ordered the confiscation of illegally imported HCFCs and denied import quotas to seven companies this year.

Pakistan newspaper Dawn reported that a senior official of the Climate Change Division had confirmed that “seven authorised importers had been placed under a moratorium and not given any quota for 2014” because of their inability to provide documentary proof of their imports of 2013.

Under the Montreal Protocol Pakistan must phase out production and consumption of HCFCs by 2020.

The government’s Climate Change Division had given import quotas to 23 parties for import of HCFCs for 2013 but it was discovered that 10 unauthorised companies had imported a total of 8.29 ODP tonnes of HCFC illegally. It was also found that some authorised importers had exceeded quota limits. As a result, the government has recalculated all the quota for the year 2014 and only 15 companies whose names had been cleared have now been issued quota for 2014.

In February, the Cooling Post reported that Pakistan customs authorities had been instructed to stop clearance/release of imported R22 after it was discovered that an import authorisation granted to an importer in Rawalpindi was in excess of an allocated quota (Pakistan plugs HCFC loophole).